Vision-Based Automotive Safety Systems Go Mainstream

Jeff Bier, founder of Embedded Vision Alliance, and president of BDTI, writes his first blog on "machines that see."

Welcome to this new blog on machines that see!

For most of my career, computer vision has been filed away in my mind as one of those cool technologies that was just too complex, expensive, and temperamental for me to use. But times change. Today we find computer vision integrated into a growing range of high-volume products, including game consoles, smartphones, and cars. I use the term "embedded vision" to refer to this proliferation of computer vision into embedded systems, mobile devices, PCs, and the cloud -- creating "machines that see and understand."

In this blog, I'll be exploring this exciting field -- including applications, enabling technologies, and design challenges. And I'll be inviting expert colleagues to contribute their insights as guest contributors.

Automotive safety is one embedded vision application that is growing fast. Vision-based "automotive driver assistance systems" perform many functions, such as forward collision avoidance, blind spot monitoring, and lane-keeping. While Google's self-driving cars have grabbed the headlines, luxury auto makers have been shipping vision-based driver assistance systems for several years without much fanfare. The fact that established automakers are deploying this technology is significant, because it tells us that the technology is reliable: A company like Daimler isn't going to risk its reputation by shipping a new technology without very extensive testing.

I'm excited about the potential for these systems to reduce the number of accidents and save lives. According to the US Centers for Disease Control, "Motor vehicle crashes are one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. More than 2.3 million adult drivers and passengers were treated in emergency departments as the result of being injured in motor vehicle crashes in 2009." I'm terrified on a daily basis when I see drivers rolling down the highway with their attention on things other than the road.

A couple of years ago, I wanted to try out vision-based safety features for myself, but wasn't prepared to buy a new luxury car. So I installed an aftermarket vision-based safety system (from industry pioneer Mobileye) in my car. You can see a video of me demonstrating the system here. While it's not perfect, I've been pleased with the system's performance, and it has definitely made me a safer driver.

When new automotive safety features are effective, they migrate from luxury models down to less-expensive models. As production volumes grow, these features become less expensive, and eventually they become ubiquitous. Today, features like air bags, anti-lock brakes, and stability control are universal. So it's not surprising that we are now beginning to see vision-based safety systems in mid-market cars like the 2014 Subaru Forester. Read the ExtremeTech review of the Forester here to get a sense of how it works.

With vision-based safety systems showing up in mid-market cars, we'll soon see hundreds of thousands of these systems deployed -- and that should start to put a real dent (pun intended) in the number of car accidents.

Personally, I'm pleased that advances in technology are making driving safer. I know there are those who complain about the costs being added to vehicles by safety mandates and I understand that that can create problems. But to me the improvements in safety far outweigh the added cost. Case in point: vehicle related fatalities in the U.S. have been on a downward trend for several years (altough they rose slightly in 2012).

I am terrified as well when I see drivers who are obviously texting, checking email, applying makeup and all sorts of other things behind the wheel. While I applaud the advent of vision to help make us all safer drivers, we at the same time need to find better ways to discourage this kind of distracted behavior to begin with.

I agree. In a future blog post, I'll discuss systems that assess the driver's attention and fatigue, some of which use vision (for example, to track where the driver is looking). If it were up to me, an electric shock would be administered through the seat if the driver looks away from the road for more than a second or two while the vehicle is in motion. :-)

Call me old fashioned ("You're old fashioned!!!) but I don't like the direction this road is heading. Maybe it's because the fondest memories I have are of setting my own course on the open roads of summer, relying on my own keen senses to gauge the beauty and cruelty of the world around me. Instead, soon we'll have a car that scolds me for driving too fast, taking a turn too tightly, or maybe just stealing a kiss as the sun sets in the west. ("No kissing!!" Zap!!)

What next, machines that force you to exercise, tell you to put down that corndog, or scold you for watching crappy TV shows?

Gimme map full of blue-lines and a 68 Camaro ragtop and I'll find my own way.

But I know what you mean. I happened to move into a new apartment equipped with talking elevators, whose job seems to be announcing "going up" or "going down" every time when I step inside. I can't shut them up.

Why is this elevator talking to me? (but of course, if I am visually impaired, I am sure I would feel different about this.)

The challenge for designers of any "automated" system is to truly understand what's necessary (rather than nice-to-have features), and make sure to give options and flexibility for users to turn it off.

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The market have been filled up with saftey systems. looking at the amount of daily car accident people are facing they have started spending high on safety of the passengers so that the family members or the traveller can have a safe journey. There comes these vision based automation systems for the car owners. You go to any of the good car servicing center around the world they will suggest you to use vision based automotive safety system as they are more reliable than others.

As far as automobile is concerned safety is the most important thing and I really appreciate the thinking of the author regarding the safety. Most of the people think of safety but less are there to implement. The "automotive driver assistance systems" will help to minimize the rate of accidents like as mentioned here about avoidance of forward collision, blind spot monitoring and many more. Also, Google's self driving cars are there to deal with the same issue but, we have technology still we are facing accidents and crashes. The question arises here why? The answer is with us. Because of taking less care of the vehicle we have to face such issues. Yes, we have technology but, only having technology will not help all the parts of the vehicle to perform to a optimum level. As cars are combined of machinery products so, wear and tear may happen. Here, technology will help us by alerting when there is some issues in the vehicle and we have to proceed further with it. It is not like we can delay the servicing and repair of the vehicle. It is going to be risky. To stay safe we have to do these things without any delay. As we have to repair our car, we can not go for any ordinary mechanic. We have to go for some professional or trained mechanics so that we can get the best repair.

Machines that can see and understand is a nice concept. If machines can start sensing the road condition then we can definitely minimize the chance of collision as well as accidents. Various technologies are now-a-days used inside the vehicle. Some embededd systems as well as sensing technologies are used in the cars and other vehicles sense the car condition all the time. When a new vehicle is all set to come into the market the car makers give more concern to its applications, technologies and about its design chalenges. The car makers provide us cars and now it is our responsibility to take care of the vehicle and drive safe to stay safe. We have to learn the safety measures and have to implement them in our daily driving. To avoid crash of the vehicle or accidents due to the vehicle breakdown we can do the servicing of the vehicle after the vehicle completes some particular miles of run. We have to stay alert about any error inside our vehicle. If so then we have to search for a reliable repair center for our respective vehicle and have to get it repaired.